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Charlotte Center City Partners stands on the cusp of landing an uptown ballpark for the Charlotte Knights after a decade of swings and misses.

The payoff? Another lengthy, and daunting, challenge on deck: bringing home a promised $350 million worth of apartments, restaurants and shops near the ballpark.

Private developers already have expressed interest in the Third Ward neighborhood surrounding the ballpark site. “The baseball stadium would be responsible for making development happen faster and more densely,” says Ron Kimble, deputy city manager.

Michael Smith, Center City Partners president, says developers have made it clear the stadium would accelerate their plans. About 28 acres, either in the form of surface parking lots or languishing property, surround the 8-acre ballpark site that spans two parcels bounded by Graham, Fourth and South Mint streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and divided by Third Street.

The Knights have begun discussions with prospective developers interested in a partnership to build a 120- to 150-room hotel behind the ballpark’s left-field wall.

Childress Klein Properties bought a 1.2-acre site late last year at 401 S. Mint St., near the stadium site.

This spring, the developer filed a land-development application with the city for a 352-unit, 21-story apartment tower on the site. Six parking levels would accommodate 452 cars, with the rest of the floors used for apartments. The project doesn’t include any ground-floor shops or restaurants.

Mixing baseball and racing metaphors, Kelly Dunbar, co-manager for residential properties at Childress Klein, says the stadium would motivate his company and others to get started. “If the ballfield got the green flag, it would help give us some clarity,” Dunbar says. “Which I think would be residential (for Childress Klein). Third Ward becomes a destination.”

Despite the recent development application, Dunbar says Childress Klein remains far from a decision on building apartments near the stadium site. “It’s just not there” yet, he says. “Baseball very much matters” as an engine for development.

More people strolling the neighborhood for 72 home games and other stadium events would lead to tenants for vacant retail spaces at the nearby Catalyst apartment tower on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, real estate analysts say.

The Knights stadium seems likely to gain the city money needed to allow the project to move forward next month. City staffers this week proposed investing $8 million into the $54 million, 10,000-capacity stadium. The team originally sought $11 million from the city.

Under the terms disclosed Tuesday, city hotel and tourism taxes would provide $7.25 million, with an additional $750,000 from Center City Partners through its existing uptown special-tax district. City Council members vote on the plan June 11.

During the most recent discussions, some stadium critics questioned the likelihood of the promised spinoff development. City Councilwoman Claire Fallon cited the nearby Carolina Panthers stadium, opened in 1996. No meaningful projects arrived after the NFL stadium opened, she said. “What makes you think it’s really going to come here?” Fallon asked Kimble during his presentation of the new Knights proposal. “Because I don’t think it will.”

Kimble said examples of similar success around ballparks exist in cities with new Triple-A stadiums. Informal “intelligence information” in the business sector points toward development around the stadium, if it’s approved, he added.

An economic-impact study by UNC Charlotte economics professor John Connaughton found a new stadium would create $38 million in direct impact and 490 jobs annually. The Knights currently play across the state line in York County, where they routinely rank at or near the bottom in the 14-team International League in attendance. Last season, Charlotte was last, with total attendance of 279,000, or 4,185 per game. Connaughton’s figures have been discounted by some council members.

Democrat James Mitchell, chair of the council’s economic development committee, says the related development makes the stadium a worthwhile project. The ballpark merits taxpayer money because it can and will stimulate uptown growth. Some 15,000 people live uptown and 83,000 work there, according to Center City Partners.

The estimated assessed tax value of the stadium and hotel totals $45 million, adding an estimated $550,000 in annual combined city and county tax revenue, the city says. Warren Cooksey, a Republican councilman, said that money comes close to offsetting the 20-year commitment of $632,000 in annual payments from tourism taxes.

BB&T Corp. bought corporate naming rights for the Knights stadium last month. Smith, the Center City Partners executive, said that deal also improved prospects for the Knights to meet a county-imposed deadline to have financing in place by June 30. The team already has hired an architect, releasing new renderings this week, as well as a general contractor. In an uptown stadium, attendance would double, the Knights estimate.

Betting on baseball can pay off for any downtown, says Bill Kalkhof, president at Downtown Durham Inc.

He backed the publicly funded, $16 million Durham Bulls stadium that opened in 1995. That ballpark, since expanded to 10,000 seats, spurred 1.3 million square feet in new and redeveloped office space and helped usher in a performing-arts center. Of the Charlotte proposal, Kalkhof says, “Any city that can get private funding into a ballpark, I congratulate you. That’s hard to get.”

Including land costs, the stadium’s price tag totals $78 million. Of that amount, the Knights would contribute $40.5 million, or just over half, through sponsorships, suite and club seats and the ownership group.

Still, the city could wind up with regrets, says Michael Barnes, a Democratic City Council member.

He warns of recent precedents at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the U.S. National Whitewater Center, projects that included public money and unmet expectations. Combined with the recent real estate slump, odds are long for hitting the proposed targets, he says.

“In light of the developments that have been planned that have not occurred — or occurred and then changed from condos to apartments — I have no idea how to anticipate whether they will be able to create the development they are claiming,” he says.

Asked whether the Knights and Center City Partners should be held accountable for the promises of $350 million worth of related projects, Barnes answers, “Yes, but our history is, people make promises, they don’t follow through and we let them go. And we say, ‘Oops.’ ”